Connector for electrical conduits.



H. D. BETTS.

CONNECTOR FOR'ELECTRICAL COND'UITS.

APPLICATION FILED APR.25.1907.

1,1 84,1 6 1. Patented May 23, 1916.

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main STATES PATENT oTTToa.

HOBART D. IBE'ITS, OF ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THOMAS & BETTS COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 23, 1916.

Application filed April 25, 1907. Serial No. 370,187.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HOBART D. Bn'r'rs, of Englewood, New Jersey, have invented certain Improvements in Connectors for Electrical Conduits, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings designating like parts.

This invention relates to connectors for pipes and similar tubular members such as the armor sheaths forming part of cables and armored electrical conductors, or the conduits within which electrical conductors are drawn for the sake of protection, my invention being of particular utility when used in connectors for flexible sheaths made of a spirally wound metallic strip or strips, although I contemplate the utilization of my improvements in any field to which they are adapted by their nature.

My invention contemplates the provision of a connector in the form of a sleeve to receive the sheath or tubular member and having a screw passing through the wall of the sheath in position to engage tangentially the periphery of the tubular member, and eflecting a firm mechanical and electrical connectionbetween the sleeve and the inclosed tubular member.

The tangential arrangement obviates the tendency of set screws to crush or deform the flexible metallic sheath and to make the bore narrower, as often happens when inexperienced workmen tighten the set screws, the latter being normal to the periphery of the sheath and there being nothing to indicate when the set screw has been driven home far enough.

The various features of my invention will be illustrated and described fully in the accompanying drawing and specification and pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings, Figure 1, is a view in vertical section of an outlet box provided with connectors in the construction of which my invention has been embodied; Fig. 2, shows one of the connectors separately, in

v perspective.

In the embodiment of my invention selected for illustration and description as a the part designated by the reference numeral 1 1s a sleeve to receive a pipe or tubular member 2, in the instance illustrated consistmg of the sheath of an armored conductor, the periphery of which is engaged.

tangentially by a screw 3 seated in the wall of the cast metal sleeve.

A threaded hole 4 gives access, into the sheath for the shank portion 5 of the screw,

whose threads will bite into the metal of the sheath and make a perfect electrical conport to the holes 1 and 8, if, as preferably will be the case, the end 9 of the screw is carried into the wall opposite its point of entrance. I have shown the connector as reduced in outside diameter at 10 to about the outside diameter of the sheath, to per mit it to pass the aperture 11 in the plate 12 forming the wall of the box, and as means to enable the connector to be secured to the wall, I have shown a thread 13 to engage the thread 1 1 in the aperture;

At 15 the aperture is plain, and a bushing or nut 16 provided to hold the connector in place, acting in opposition to the outer abutment formed where the connector is reduced from sleeve to neck, the constriction forming within a protective shoulder 17, preferably rounded to prevent abrasion of the insulation 18 onthe electrical conductors 19.

Having thus fully illustrated and described my invention and various convenient modes of embodying it, it will be understood that I do not limit myself to the specific materials nor details of construction illustrated nor in general otherwise than as set forth in the claim read in connection with the specification.

What I claim and desire to secure by Let- I ters Patent is A connector for spirally wound electrical conduit; comprising a sleeve having an inner socket and a reduced, threaded neck to enter an aperture in the wall of an electrical conduit box, and with a retaining nut thereon rotatable relatively to said connector and box respectively; and a retaining screw traversing sald socket tangentially, the inner surface of said socket being smooth, to Signed at New York in the county and permit rotation of said connector-relatively State of New York this sixteenth day of to said conduit when assembled with said April, 1907. 4

- HOBART D. BETTS.

conduit and box, for adjustment of said screw to the convolutions of said conduit, W1tnesses: without longitudinal movement of said ALEXANDER C. PROUDFIT,

. sleeve. ADNA W. MCMURTRIE. 

